At least the guy is thinking about it and the Squadron is acting on good ideas and new information.

If you read Approach magazine (same Navy website) you'll find that aircrew sometimes don't fully absorb all the material because "it'll never happen to me."

My hobby is looking for old aircraft wrecks and I've thought a lot about the survival aspect of the bailout. I'm convinced that my seatpan kit should weigh at least 80lb!

The crew of an A3D who bailed out over the mountains of Colorado in 1970 were lucky that it was August. The parachute shelter and firestarting worked for the hours it took to be rescued. Had it been January they would have died of exposure before the search helo had even lifted.

The evasion part of the equation is a real difficult issue. On this board we want to be found. Evading to be found by the right people sounds extremely challenging.

Right angle flashlight- my father, VN era F-4 pilot, says he'd
clip it to his harness turned on with red lighting and aimed at the instrument panel for every night catapault shot. Should all the electricity go out on teh cat stroke, he could still see the backup gyro with that lighting long enough to work the problem (reset breakers, jettison stores, keep wings level and get away from the water). Chances are that in an ejection that particular piece of gear would disappear unless it were tucked into a closed vest pocket. Tradeoffs.

They have a lot to deal with so studying up on survival techniques is just one of many, many skills needed to stay alive in Naval Aviation.


unimogbert